Srinagar, Jan 10: Underscoring the significance of the energy sector in the economic development of the State, Minister of State for Power, Shabir Ahmed Khan Thursday called for necessary reforms to bridge the gap between the energy supply and revenue collection.
 The Minister said the government was “endeavouring hard to provide power to the people round the clock for both domestic and commercial purposes and for achieving this goal the full collection of tariff is very important.”
 He directed the Power Development Department (PDD) to put in all efforts for ensuring hundred percent revenue collections, instead of mooting curtailment programmes.
 Addressing a high level meeting convened here today to discuss issues pertaining to the supply of electricity and collection of revenue, the Minister said that “failure or lapse in the revenue collection forces officials to go for curtailment” and asked the PDD functionaries not to go for the curtailment and instead make efforts to realize the revenue and avoid disruption in power supply.
 The Minister said despite limited resources, the State has to spend over Rs 3100 crore on import of power against a revenue collection of half of this amount which was a matter of great concern and needs immediate attention of the authorities at the helm of affairs, an official statement said.
 Shabir urged for a multi -pronged strategy to bring a turnaround in the power sector with emphasis on energetic inspections, 100 percent metering and effective implementation of relevant laws to cap pilferages at various levels as also to affect targeted recoveries precisely.
 “Jammu and Kashmir is the only state where about 70 percent energy is lost due to power pilferage and T&D losses,” Shabir said, adding that the state cannot afford this huge deficit for a long. “The situation demands self introspection and the responsibility lie on the officers, engineers and the field staff of power department,” he said.
 Principal Secretary, PDD, Arun Kumar Mehta directed the engineers to complete all under execution power projects well in time for reducing power losses in the division.

Statistics
 The meeting was informed that 34921 new connections have been registered in Kashmir during last eight month of current fiscal taking the total number to 719908.
 The meeting was informed that Power Development Department has realized revenue of Rs 402.065 crore from the consumers of Kashmir Division ended December 2012, while Rs 60.24 lakh have been recovered from the defaulters till November.
 The meeting was also informed that 4951 new applications were received for revision of load against which 4162.66 KWs load was added in the division.
 It was also informed that the checking squads have made 15957 inspections across the division to check illegal connection and power pilferage and imposed a fine of Rs. 169.67 lakh against which Rs 60.24 lakh have been recovered from the violators
 The meeting also took detailed review of under execution   works being carried out under RGGVY, R-APDRP and state plan in the division.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Jan 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 9 Jan 2013 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 IST